Arushi Talwar’s mobile phone recovered from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh does not have any data card, pictures or text messages, sources said on Tuesday.

The CBI, which has been reportedly handed over the phone by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch, has sent the handset to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory for digital examination to check the possibility of data recovery.

A senior official said some data might be recovered if no modifications were made in the handset. “It is an important piece of evidence and might lead to the location of the killers,” the official said.

Meanwhile, CBI has taken Ram Bhool, from whom Arushi’s cellphone was recovered, and his sister Kusum, into custody and is questioning them. But sources said they seem to have had no role in last year’s murder of the teenager and family help Hemraj in Talwars’ flat in Jalvayu Vihar, Noida.

“Kusum and her relatives do not seem to have had any mala fide intention in keeping the phone,” a source said. “We suspect they were not even aware that the phone belonged to Arushi, or that a reward had been announced for it.”

Kusum’s husband Vyas and her son Sonu are also being questioned to get more details about the phone.

The Crime Branch had on Monday said Arushi’s handset (Nokia N 72 model) was found from Ram Bhool on Saturday. Bhool is a Class IV employee of Punjab National Bank in Dussehra village, Bulandshar. He had got the handset from Kusum, who then worked as a sweeper in Jalvayu Vihar. She now works at a private school in Sadarpur village, Noida, Sector-37.

... contd.